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Kwesi Botchwey addressing the audience. Image: NII MARTEY M. BOTCHWAY
US President of the African Development Initiative, Professor Kwesi Botchwey, said President Donald Trump's "America First" trade policy could undermine global security and development.
He said the America First policy "puts global security and development at risk, with disastrous consequences for the global community."
He explained that this policy, for example, had led the United States to withdraw from multilateral trade agreements in favor of bilateral trade agreements.
Speaking on the theme "Multilateralism in a Globalized World and Its Implications for Global Stability", Professor Botchwey said that Trump's policy had also led to the withdrawal of America from the US. Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which he signed and to which he adhered.
Speaking at the Ghana Armed Forces College in Teshie, near Accra, as part of the college lecture series on contemporary issues, Professor Botchwey pointed out that such withdrawals could have disastrous consequences.
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Other consequences of the America First policy include its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, UNESCO and the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as the historic nuclear agreement with Iran. .
Present were the high command of the college, other senior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces, college students and other senior dignitaries.
Cold War
Professor Botchwey, a prominent academic and statesman who has run Ghana's economy as finance minister for 13 years, said the election of President Trump sparked a new Cold War that promised to be more generalized than the previous one.
He added that the beginning of the US-led trade war, tainted by the imposition of tariffs mainly on imports from China, as part of Trump's first trade policy. s America, had triggered retaliatory action by the affected countries.
He mentioned some of the affected countries like India, China, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and even the European Union, where President Trump imposed import tariffs of vehicles.
He described US trade policy as an act of desperation, adding that his logic was flawed.
Power Dynamism
Professor Botchwey said that the dynamics of world power indicated that the time had come for the United States and developed countries to take note of the shift in the balance of power.
"There has been a fundamental shift in the balance of power, and the erosion of multilateralism and the rise of bilateralism will be long behind us," he said.
Professor Botchwey, described as a prominent local and international figure, said countries such as China and India were no longer unwelcome, saying it was important for the developed world and the United States to recognize.
He said that America and the developed countries "forget that other countries like China have simply become more efficient, able to compete at any level".
Voltage
Taking advantage of the memory of multilateralism, Professor Botchwey said that for 70 years, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had always been European, while that of the World Bank was American.
He explained that this arrangement did not go well with other countries, especially Asians, who considered themselves to be an important part of both institutions.
He explained that when tension intensified, even though Europeans and Americans continued to maintain their dominant role in the affairs of both institutions, they began to refuse their contributions, to the detriment of the proper functioning of these institutions.
"They were not only dragging their feet on funding shortfalls and maintaining their dominance, they started to politicize these institutions," he said.
"They used the IMF and the World Bank to punish countries whose behavior they did not support," added Professor Botchway.
This led to the creation of regional multilateral institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which functioned as the IMF.
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